Kent Hovind, being a Young Earth Creationist, is a believer in conspiracy theories.  YEC and conspiracy theories fit well together, because acceptance of YEC requires acceptance of a pretty far-reaching conspiracy implicating not just the life scientists who accept evolution, but also geologists and astronomers.

Jesuits To The Left Of Them, Jesuits To The Right Of Them

Sometimes Kent’s supporters will think that I am part of the conspiracy.  When I interviewed Ernie Land, I gave him a hard time about the comments that were made by Hovindicators concerning Jesuits.  Growing up in the metro New York area, the brightest boy in every parochial grammar school would likely end up in one of the five Jesuit high schools in the region – the really bright ones ending up at Regis which was free.  I went to Xavier High School and followed on with the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester Mass, making me rather fond of Jesuits.

Anyway, my defense of the Society of Jesus, somehow translated into my having been a Jesuit for eight years, which would be like me claiming to be a Vietnam veteran, because our Junior ROTC program at Xavier had active duty soldiers just back from Vietnam on the faculty.

So I got a good laugh when Bryan Denlinger of King James Video Ministries accused Kent Hovind and Ernie Land of somehow being tied up with the Jesuits. Bryan’s conspiracy meanderings are rather difficult to follow and unravel.  He talks about Ernie mentioning a company, which translates into Company and bingo the CIA is involved.

Doctor Dino Loses A Fan

Bryan seems like a nice enough guy and he is pained to have to reject Dr. Hovind, whose teachings he has valued,  And the reason he is doing that is because of Ernie, who has been involved in multi-level marketing.

The other reason I find this video irresistible is that it uses this very blog as a resource early in citing my post – Ernie Land, Kent Hovind’s BFF, Comments On The Trial  .  All that they use it for are to establish that Ernie and Kent are buds, which is hardly a great revelation.  As an investigative reporter, I make a pretty good tax return preparer. I thought it was touching that Mrs. Denlinger had to explain to her husband what BFF stood for. (Best Friend Forever, for the texting challenged)

You can see comments from Ernie Land (Docfogg) , Rudy Davis (Lonestar1776) and George Lujack in the comments section, making it something of a Hovindication reunion site.

The Word From Ernie

Anyway, I thought this would be a good occasion to catch up with Ernie.  I interviewed him about a year ago in the midst of the run-up to Kent’s last trial.  One of the things that Ernie and I had discussed was whether Kent might become what I have taken to calling “conventionally tax compliant”.  I came up with that term to allow for the fact that there are people out there who believe that they are not breaking any laws, because they believe that the tax laws do not really apply to them or hardly anybody for that matter.

Well a year later, having beaten additional charges by a combination of conventional legal work and a bit of jury nullification, it seems like Kent may be headed in that direction.  Donations, not tax deductible, and other revenue from Kent’s ministry is going to a Nevada corporation Creation Science Evangelism, Inc. which is owned by Ernie Land.  CSE is paying Kent and will be sending him a 1099.  Here is how Ernie describes the arrangement

Today, Kent Hovind is retired. He still travels and speaks on Creation, the flood, and now, ends times. He is a paid consultant, and speaker for Creation Science Evangelism, Inc.(CSE), a company, I formed, and have ownership of. CSE has royalty agreements on materials Kent Hovind has created, and continues to create. We are a for profit Corporation, and have hopes to for a not for profit to develop an education series on creation, the flood, and end times, as well as a park,  or campus, built around the science of these things, very futuristic. I am advising Kent to focus on these 3 areas in his speaking. He has the Constitutional right to speak out on any subject he wishes. He does speak on his utube official site about many of the atrocities America has fallen into, and yes, many are political, but again that is his freedom of speech being exercised.  Additionally, I have advised Kent to follow the C.P.A.’s advice on any tax filing, if it is even necessary due to his vow of poverty, and retirement. Most speaking engagements are in Churches, where people who give love offerings give to the Church who then makes payment to CSE, which covers his travel expenses and allows him to consult on projects CSE will develop in the future. Kent lives in a Pastoral home, owned by another Ministry, in his original location in Pensacola. Kent has produced dozens of seminars and books, which is where the royalty comes from that covers his day to day needs.  He educates people on Bible Creation and advances the cause of Christ with his dedicated works.

That other ministry is Creation Today, which is run by Kent’s son Eric.  I get the sense that Kent’s team is doing its best to keep him focused on creation and “end times”.  In other catching up, Ernie tells me that Rudy Davis is back to his day job, which accounts, I would think, for his lower youtube productivity of late.

CSE is using a Top 25 regional CPA firm, which is probably the right fit if the enterprise is going to scale up.  There are some complicated issues to consider, like multi-state and the wise thing to do would be to be meticulous in compliance, which requires a good size firm.  On the other hand they probably would have a hard time with a large national.

Ernie does have an answer to Bryan’s criticism of him.

I have no connections to the C.I.A., the Illuminati, the Jesuit’s, the Vatican, and never joined the Masons. I am a Bible believing, confessing Christian, raised as a Southern Baptist. Big Pharma doesn’t have any affection for me, because my Pharmacy (not insurance, but discount only) discount cards, actually reduce the cost of most medications at participating Pharmacies, and I freely give them away to anyone who has a need. I had to word that last sentence properly for legal reasons. It was MLM, and I do believe that business model is the best business model in free enterprise. I love that business because I have many testimonies where our senior citizens had to choose between needed medications and food prior to using my free card. The Bioperformance/Lowell Mims scam story being shared is a half lie. Yes, Bioperformance was attacked by the Texas AG, now Texas Governor, as a scam. The product proved to be a viable product in the Houston E.P.A. certified Lab under F.T.P., as lowering harmful emissions, and H.F.E.T., as increasing fuel economy, in these E.P.A. testing protocols. This  lead to a settlement by Texas, after which I started and owned, BPI Worldwide, a MLM company, marketing that very product. We had moderate success, but the negative public opinion stopped any real momentum. Lowell Mims, a Texas Evangelist, never recovered his reputation due to the public never being informed of the facts on this case. Lowell, like Kent is a very good, and Godly man.

Can’t We All Just Get Along

You might think that people who believe that pretty much all the answers to life’s questions can be found in one book – in the case of Kent and his more in sorrow than anger critic Bryan Denlinger that would be the King James version of the Bible, which they consider to be God’s revelation to the English-speaking peoples -would be able to sort things out, but apparently it is not the case.

Kent has also been getting a lot of heat from believers in flat earth and geocentrism.

I think the problem is the tendency to think that people who don’t agree with you must be either evil or deluded.  The Hovindicators tend to think that Robert Baty is getting substantial government support.  I mean the guy has a facebook page.  Really.  It is pretty thorough, but don’t you think someone with unlimited money from the federal reserve could do a little better?

Anyway, it was nice to chat with Ernie again and I am glad that Kent is likely going to be conventional in his approach to taxes.  I’m thinking that I might go up to Maine to visit with Denlingers some time, but, you know, it’s tax season, so I have to spend a lot of time at the day job.  The Jesuits seem to be focusing on getting Donald Trump elected.  Trump went to Fordham for two years.

I guess that’s why they haven’t been sending me any money.

Peter  J Reilly CPA writes on taxes for fobes.com, which leaves him little time to devote to Your Tax Matters Partner.  When reading the bible, he tends to favor the King James Version because it sounds so, you know, biblical.  He attributes his career in public accounting to poor guidance at Xavier High School, which taught him many valuable lessons and exposed him to many inspiring men, who for the most part knew jack shit about business.